Floodwood beats Carlton in Conference Match-Up

September 29th, 2013

Tyler Peterson NSO

Friday night, the Floodwood Polar Bears topped the Carlton Bulldogs 34-12. With the win, the conference leading Polar Bears improved to 5-0 on the season and dropped the Bulldogs to 0-5 on the season.

Carlton got off to a hot start, moving the ball well against a tough Polar Bears defense. The scoring got kicked off when junior running back, Dominic Bennett took a 41 yard run into the end zone to giving the Bulldogs the 6-0 lead in the 1st quarter.

The Polar Bears would answer back when junior Willow Christensen had a 15 yard scamper into the end zone to tie the game and eventually give Floodwood the lead with a successful extra point. Floodwood would score again when senior Brody Graff hammered a 3 yarder into the end zone giving Floodwood the 13-6 lead.

Before the half ended, Carlton was marching down the field, which included a impressive fake punt by Josh Dahlman who took it 12 yards to convert on 4th down. With 11 seconds left, Bulldogs junior, Cade Pierson broke free of tackles and almost punched it into the end zone but was tackled at the 5 yard line when time expired, leaving the secure at 13-6 at halftime.

On the first drive of the 2nd half, Floodwood marched down the field and capped it off with a dazzling rushing touchdown by Willow Christensen which ended with him reversing field before trotting into the end zone for his second touchdown of the night, increasing the lead to 20-6 for the Polar Bears. Floodwood would score once again after a Dominic Bennett fumble. Floodwood drove all the way down to the 1 yard line before senior Evan Suonvieri ran one right up the gut, making the score 27-6 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Carlton’s offense would be stopped again, and Floodwood would take advantage as Brody Graff would see the end zone for the second time of the evening, this time on a 48 yard touchdown, which would be the Polar Bears final touchdown of the night, putting 34 points on the board. Carlton would march down the field one last time, going near 60 yards on the drive. The would end the drive in the end zone when junior quarterback, Nick Lee snuck one past the goal line from just a yard out. That would end the scoring for the night, as Floodwood topped Carlton, 34-12.

Leading the way for the Bulldogs offense was junior Cade Pierson who led the team with 82 yards rushing. Following Pearson, was junior Dominic Bennett who ran for 76 yards respectively. On the defensive end, Dominic Bennett would add to his area leading total, by piling up 18 tackles and improving his season total in tackles to an impressive 66.5. Junior Josh Dahlman would add 10 tackles for the Bulldogs, and freshman Myles O’Leary put in a nice effort with 9 tackles.

No stats for the Floodwood Polar Bears were submitted, but leading the way was junior Willow Christensen who had 2 touchdowns and senior Brody Graff who also saw the end zone twice on the night.

Floodwood (5-0) will be back into action when they invite the McGregor Mercuries (2-3) to town on Friday, October 4th. The Bulldogs (0-5) will be back on the gridiron when they travel to face off against cross town rivals, the Wrenshall Wrens (2-3) on Friday, October 4th.

Tyler Peterson can be contacted at tpeterson@northlandsportsonline.com